God in Buddhism
The Buddha rejected the existence of a creator deity, refused to endorse many views on creation and stated that questions pertaining to the origin of the world are not useful and ultimately irrelevant to the end of suffering. Buddhism, instead, emphasizes the system of casual relationships underlaying the universe (Dependent Origination) which constitute the natural order (dharma) and source of enlightenment. No dependence of phenomena on a supernatural reality is asserted in order to explain the behavior of matter. According to the doctrine of the Buddha, a human being must study nature (dhamma vicaya) in order to attain personal wisdom (prajna) regarding the nature of things (dharma). In Buddhism, the sole aim of spiritual practice is the complete alleviation of stress in samsara, which is called nirvana ''(Pali: ''nibbana). Some teachers tell students beginning Buddhist meditation that the notion of divinity is not incompatible with Buddhism, and at least one Buddhist scholar has idicated that describing Buddhism as nontheistic may be overly simplistic, but many traditional theist beliefs are considered to pose a hinderance on the attainment of nirvana, the highest goal of Buddhist practice. Despite this apparent nontheism, Buddhists consider veneration of the worthy ones very important, although the two main traditions of Buddhism differ midly in their reverential attitudes. While Theravada Buddhists view the Buddha as a human being who attained nirvana or Buddhahood through human efforts, some Mahayana Buddhists consider him an embodiment of the cosmic Dharmakaya, born for the benefit of others. In addition, some Mahayana Buddhists do worship their cheif bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, and hope to embody him. Some Buddhists accept the existence of beings in higher realms known as devas, but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and are not necessarily wiser than us. In fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as the teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this there are believed to be enlightened devas. Some variations of Buddhism express a philosophical belief in an eternal Buddha: a representatin of omnipresent enlightenment and a symbol of the true nature of the universe. The primordial aspect that interconnects every part of the universe is the clear light of the eternal Buddha, where everything timelessly arises and dissolves. Early Buddhism As scholar Surian Yee describes, "the attitude of the Buddha as portrayed in the Nikayas is more anti-speculative than specifically atheistic", although Gautama did regard the belief in a creator deity to be unhealthy. However, the Samannaphala Sutta placed materialism and amoralism together with eternalism as forms of wrong view. As Hayes describes it, "In the Nikaya literature, the question of the existence of God is treated primarily from either an epistemological point of view or a moral point of view. As a problem of epistemology, the question of God's existence amounts to a discussion of whether or not a religious seeker can be certain that there is a greatest good and that therefore his efforts to realize a greatest good will not be a pointless struggle towards an unrealistic goal. And as a problem in morality, the question amounts to a discussion of whether man himself is ultimately responsible for all the displeasure that he feels or whether there exists a superior being who inflicts displeasure upon man whether he deserves it or not... the Buddha Gotama is portrayed not as an atheist who claims to be able to prove God's nonexistence, but rather as a skeptic with respect to other teachers' claims to be able to lead their disciples to the highest good." Citing the Devadaha Sutta ''('Majjhima Nikaya 101"), Hayes remarks that "while the reader is left to conclude that it is attachment rather than God, actions in past lives, fate, type of birth or efforts in this life that is reponsible for our experiences of sorrow, no systematic argument is given in an attempt to disprove the existence of God". In the Pali Canon the Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathagata (the Buddha) was Dharmakaya, the 'Truth-body' or the 'Embodiment of Truth', as well as a Dharmabhuta, 'Truth-become' 'One who has become Truth'. The Buddha is equated with the Dhamma: : ...and the Buddha comforts him, "Enough, Vakkali. Why do you want to see this filthy body? Whoever sees the Dhamma sees me; whoever sees me sees the Dhamma". ''Putikaya, the "decomposing" body, is distinguished from the eternal ''Dhamma ''body of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva body. Brahma in the Pali Canon Brahma is among the common gods found in the Pali Canon. Brahma (in common with all other devas) is subject to change, final decline and death, just as are all other sentient beings in samsara (the plane of continual reincarnation and suffering). In fact there are several different Brahma worlds and several kinds of Brahmas in Buddhism, all of which however are just stuck in samsara for a long while. Sir Charles Eliot describes attitudes towards Brahma in early Buddhism as follows: : There comes a time when this world system passes away and then certain beings are reborn in the "World of Radiance" and remain there a long time. Sooner or later, the world system begins to evolve again and the palace of Brahma appears, but it is empty. Then some being whose time is up falls from the "World of Radiance" and comes to life in the palace and remains there alone. At last he wishes for company, and it so happens that other beings whose time is up fall from the "World of Radiance" and join him. And the first being thinks that he is Great Brahma, the Creator, because when he felt lonely and wished for companions other beings appeared. And the other beings accept this view. And at last one of Brahma’s retinue falls from that state and is born in the human world and, if he can remember his previous birth, he reflects that he is transitory but that Brahma still remains and from this he draws the erroneous conclusion that Brahma is eternal. Other common gods referred to in the Canon Many of the other gods in the Pali Canon find a common mythological role in Hindu literature. Some common gods and goddesses are Indra, Aapo (Varuna), Vayo (Vayu), Tejo (Agni), Surya, Pajapati (Prajapati), Soma, Yasa, Venhu (Vishnu), Mahadeva (Shiva), Vijja (Saraswati), Usha, Pathavi (Prithivi), Sri (Lakshmi), Kuvera (Kubera), several yakkhas (Yakshas), gandhabbas (Gandharvas), Nagas, garula (Garuda), sons of Bali, Veroca, etc. While in Hindu texts some of these gods and goddesses are considered embodiments of the Supreme Being, the Buddhist view is that all gods and goddesses were bound in samsara. The world of gods according to the Buddha presents a bieng with too many pleasures and distractions. See also *Faith in Buddhism *Nirvana References #http://wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Buddhism Category:Buddhists philosophical concepts